Shedinja/XY
Nincada is found only on Route 6, at a 10% rate. The haunted husk arrives in Kalos, bringing all its gimmicky goodness with it. Too bad Kalos is anything but kind to it. Coverage is abundant, with Dark-type moves being particularly common. Shedinja has its uses, but overall it spends too much time on the sidelines to really be worth a spot on the team. Important Matchups * Tierno and Trevor (Route 7, tag battle with rival): Pikachu's pretty nonthreatening given that only Quick Attack can harm Nincada. Corphish hits pretty hard, though, and Nincada can't do much damage to it without building up a few Hone Claws first, so you might want to wait until it's gone before bringing out Nincada. Flabébé's manageable, provided your partner still has a Pokemon out to weaken Fairy Wind's power. * Gym #2 - Grant (Cyllage City, Rock-type): A double dose of Rock Tomb, plus Bite on the Tyrunt. Nothing for a Shedinja to do here. * Korrina (Geosenge Town, Fighting-type): Neither of the Lucario can touch a Ghost type, so Shedinja can feel free to carve into them with reckless abandon. * Rival (Tower of Mastery): Shedinja can Shadow Claw up in Meowstic and Frogadier's faces all it wants but must steer clear of Absol's Bite and Braixen's Fire Spin/Quilladin's Bite. * Gym #3 - Korrina (Shalour City, Fighting-type): Treat Mienfoo and Hawlucha to Aerial Ace. (Despite its Flying-type flavoring, Flying Press is still considered a Fighting-type move insofar as it can't hit Ghosts.) Bail when Machoke shows up - it has Rock Tomb. * Rival (Coumarine City): Matchupwise, it's the same as before: Shedinja can fight against Meowstic and Frogadier but nothing else. However, if Shedinja selects X-Scissor against Meowstic and Absol is switched in, there's a chance that X-Scissor will one-shot it; just don't stay in if Absol survives. * Gym #4 - Ramos (Coumarine City, Grass-type): Jumpluff has Leech Seed and Acrobatics and Weepinbell has Poison Powder and Gastro Acid, so those are clearly off-limits. Amusingly, his ace Gogoat is a safe fight for Shedinja to get in some X-Scissor target practice. * Aliana (Kalos Power Plant): Don't. Mightyena will smack Shedinja across the face with Assurance and that'll be the end of it. * Gym #5 - Clemont (Lumiose City, Electric-type): Emolga is to be avoided (Aerial Ace), but the other two are safe. Shadow Claw is recommended for Magneton and X-Scissor for Heliolisk. * Rival (Route 14): The starters have evolved but that doesn't concern Shedinja. Meowstic and Greninja remain its only safe fights. * Gym #6 - Valerie (Laverre City, Fairy-type): Shedinja can't face Mawile's Dark-type attacks, but Mr. Mime and Sylveon are valid targets. Shadow Claw can handle both (or X-Scissor for the Mr. Mime), though you'll want to add Toxic to the mix as Mr. Mime's Reflect and Sylveon's Charm will slow down Shedinja considerably otherwise. * Celosia and Bryony (Poké Ball Factory, tag battle with rival): Shedinja's stuck on the sidelines. Liepard has Assurance, and Manectric has Bite. * Mable (Frost Cavern): Houndoom is most definitely not Shedinja's cup of tea, especially one with 3/4ths of its moves being lethal. * Rival (Anistar City): Meowstic and Greninja have joined the list of things Shedinja can't fight, having learned Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse respectively. On the plus side, Chesnaught is now safe as it has forgotten Bite. As for the newcomers, Flareon's off-limits but Jolteon and Vaporeon can be safely battled. (Of course, this all assumes the weather's clear. Do not send out Shedinja in hail.) * Gym #7 - Olympia (Anistar City, Psychic-type): A Sigilyph with Air Slash, a Slowking with Power Gem and a Meowstic with Shadow Ball. Looks like it's bench time for Shedinja again. * Lysandre battle #1 (Lysandre Labs): Mienfoo, Murkrow and Pyroar have Acrobatics, Foul Play + Aerial Ace and Fire Blast + Dark Pulse respectively, but his ace Gyarados is a safe fight. You'll probably want to use Toxic to back up your Shadow Claws, as Shedinja's damage output is rather low after Intimidate. * Aliana (Lysandre Labs): Nope. Mightyena has Sucker Punch and Crunch while Druddigon has Crunch and Shadow Claw. * Celosia (Lysandre Labs): Still nope. Manectric has Flamethrower and Drapion has Night Slash. * Bryony (Lysandre Labs): Even more nope. Liepard has Sucker Punch, plus Taunt to nullify Toxstall shenanigans and Bisharp has Night Slash and Shadow Claw. * Mable (Lysandre Labs): Houndoom has Flamethrower, Snarl and Foul Play while Weavile has Night Slash. Confound all these Dark types! * Xerosic (Lysandre Labs): Crobat has Air Slash and Malamar has Payback. Shedinja is flipping tables in its mind by now. * Lysandre battle #2 (Team Flare Secret HQ): Finally, Shedinja can be useful again! True, it can still only face Gyarados, but given how nasty that thing is, that's still quite a boon. * Xerneas (Team Flare Secret HQ, X only): If you use Shedinja for nothing else, use it here. Heck, you can even temporarily teach it False Swipe to make the catch easier! * Yveltal (Team Flare Secret HQ, Y only): DON'T. There is so much STAB here it isn't funny. * Lysandre battle #3 (Team Flare Secret HQ): His other three 'mons aren't any less deadly, and Shedinja's former sole purpose of fighting Gyarados has evaporated as well - it gains Mold Breaker when it Mega Evolves, and that'll cut clean through Shedinja's Wonder Guard. * Professor Sycamore (Couriway Town): Venusaur's packing Worry Seed and all but one of Charizard's moves are lethal, but Blastoise is safe. You'll probably want to use Toxic, though, otherwise Iron Defense tends to drag it out. * Shauna (Route 19): Shedinja can't cope with Delcatty or Delphox, but Goodra, Greninja and Chesnaught are alright, though Chesnaught will require using noncontact moves (or Phantom Force, if you have it), or else Shedinja risks skewering itself on Spiky Shield. * Tierno (Route 19): Roserade is the one safe target here, having only Petal Dance for some silly reason. Once again, though, this will require sticking to moves that don't make contact in order to avoid Poison Point. * Trevor (Route 19): Aerodactyl's entire movepool can kill Shedinja, but Raichu and Florges are safe to fight. * Gym #8 - Wulfric (Snowbelle City, Ice-type): Shedinja's warming the bench again. Abomasnow summons hail simply by entering the field, Cryogonal has Confuse Ray and Hail and Avalugg has Crunch. (Technically, if Abomasnow's the only one left you could have a teammate stall the hail out and then bring in Shedinja...but wouldn't it be much easier to just use a Fire-type?) * Rival (Victory Road): Newcomer Altaria joins Jolteon, Vaporeon and Chesnaught on the list of 'mons that Shedinja can battle. Meowstic, Absol, Delphox, Flareon and Greninja are still off-limits. * Elite Four Wikstrom (Pokémon League, Ironworks Chamber, Steel-type): Klefki's the only one Shedinja can fight...but it's probably better to leave it to something that can take it out faster to prevent it from laying down too many Spikes. * Elite Four Malva (Pokémon League, Blazing Chamber, Fire-type): That type specialty alone should tell you how nonexistent Shedinja's chances are here. * Elite Four Drasna (Pokémon League, Dragonmark Chamber, Dragon-type): Theoretically, Shedinja can handle everything except the Flamethrower-having Noivern. But with Dragalge's Poison Point and Druddigon's Rough Skin it'll have to stick to noncontact moves until they're both down leading to quite a drawn out fight. Bring Ethers. And a snack. * Elite Four Siebold (Pokémon League, Flood Chamber, Water-type): Clawitzer has Dark Pulse and Barbaracle has Stone Edge but Gyarados are Starmie are safe. Toxic's recommended for Gyarados but you probably won't need it for Starmie given its weakness to both Shedinja's STABs and semi-frailty. * Champion Diantha (Pokémon League, Radiant Chamber): Shedinja can only battle Hawlucha and Aurorus directly, though if you luck out and Gardevoir switches into a Shadow Claw it may go down as well. However, unless Aurorus and Hawlucha are the only ones left it's best to leave Aurorus to a 'mon with Fighting or Steel moves to keep it from causing trouble with Reflect and Light Screen. * Post-Game: Shedinja can't do a thing to AZ and the only Pokemon of Essentia's it can battle is Mawile. Just let it rest, it's done quite enough. Moves When first caught Nincada will have Scratch, Leech Life, Harden and Sand-Attack; the first three will be useful during its brief stint as a Nincada but Sand-Attack is rather gambly. At level 14 it learns Fury Swipes but Scratch is usually better. At level 19 it learns Mind Reader but most of its good moves are pretty accurate anyway. If you keep it unevolved it can learn False Swipe, Mud-Slap, Metal Claw and Dig but none of these are really worth. Instead, as Shedinja it'll learn Spite at level 25 but it's not really worth a slot. At level 31 it learns Confuse Ray which can help a bit with its damage output. At level 38 it learn Shadow Sneak which might be useful if it needs to finish something off. At level 43 it learns Grudge which is hopefully not a move a Nuzlocker should ever need. At level 47 it learns Phantom Force but two Shadow Claws will do more damage anyway. At level 50 it learns Heal Block; probably not worth it. Lastly, at level 59 it learns Shadow Ball but you'll already have access to the TM by this point. As far as TMs go, X-Scissor and Shadow Claw are obvious choices. Toxic can help with Shedinja meh-ish damage output; Hone Claws can as well, though it won't often get a chance to set up since the AI will usually switch if the current 'mon can't hit Shedinja. Shadow Ball has fringe uses against opponents that can only kill though contact. For utility purposes it's also capable of learning False Swipe, Cut and Flash. Recommended moveset: X-Scissor, Shadow Claw, Toxic, Shadow Ball/Hone Claws Other Nincada's stats Shedinja's stats * What Nature do I want? Shedinja can't use its defensive stats at all, so any nature that decreases one of them is good, with Lonely and Naughty being the best of the bunch. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? It should be evolved by the time you face Grant. * How good is Shedinja in a Nuzlocke? Honestly, not that great. It ends up having to sit out against many bosses' Pokemon and unless you have a perfect memory for movepools, many trainer battles as well. Nincada's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Fire, Ice, Water, Flying * Resistances: Fighting, Poison, Ground * Immunities: Electric * Neutralities: Normal, Grass, Bug, Rock, Psychic, Ghost, Dark, Dragon, Steel, Fairy Shedinja's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Flying, Rock, Ghost, Fire, Dark * Resistances: None * Immunities: Normal, Fighting, Poison (Wonder Guard), Ground (Wonder Guard), Bug (Wonder Guard), Steel (Wonder Guard), Water (Wonder Guard), Grass (Wonder Guard), Electric (Wonder Guard), Psychic (Wonder Guard), Ice (Wonder Guard), Dragon (Wonder Guard), Fairy (Wonder Guard) * Neutralities: None Category:X/Y